Did Qualcomm kill Samsung-made Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 for Galaxy S26 Ultra?

It was rumored a couple of months ago that Qualcomm will have two variants of its upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 chipset, one made by TSMC on its 3nm process and the other made by Samsung on its 2nm GAA process, which would be used in devices like the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This would have marked Qualcomm's return to Samsung Foundry after a three-year hiatus and served as a vote of confidence in the foundry's next-generation process technology. However, new information has surfaced which claims Qualcomm has likely ditched the Samsung-made Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.

Earlier information had revealed two distinct identifiers for this chipset, 8850-S and 8850-T, with “S” denoting the chip made by Samsung and “T” identifying the one made by TSMC. Qualcomm has reportedly removed the 8850-S identifiers completely from current specifications. It's likely that the company has discontinued the Samsung-made version for now.

There could be different reasons behind the decision but the speculation will default to Samsung Foundry's longstanding yield issues. These issues were partly why Samsung couldn't use the Exynos 2500 for the Galaxy S25 series.

It was forced to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite globally for all four models. Samsung Foundry lost out to TSMC as Qualcomm picked it as the sole manufacturing partner for the Snapdragon 8 Elite last year. If the latest information is accurate, then TSMC may once again be the only foundry to make Qualcomm's next flagship chip.

Recent reports had claimed that yields for the Exynos 2600, which is also being made on Samsung's 2nm process, are at nearly 50%. Feasible mass production typically requires yields of over 70%. Perhaps Qualcomm felt that Samsung's yield issues won't be addressed as quickly as it would like so reverting to a TSMC-only production strategy, which is a proven commodity, eliminates the risk it may not be too comfortable taking on.